I am Mary Ruth Greene, the lead Teacher for the Media Arts and Technology Academy. As the lead, I am working to build the Media Arts and Technology Academy which in turn will attract more students to Venice High School. For this project, I worked with my 70 American Literature 11th grade English Language Arts students as I am also a full time English Language Arts teacher and the English Department Chair. The L.I.F.T. Foundation teacher grant allowed me to purchase the iPads that we used to to create and edit videos. With the iPads we interviewed family members, community members, and positive influence in order to highlight the importance of their individual cultures within American society. The project culminated with a gallery show for the community members featured in the videos, artworks and essays.

Thanks to the L.I.F.T. Foundation Teacher Grant I will enable me to continue engaging students by incorporating art, filmmaking and writing. All of these elements will work together to provide a platform through which students will demonstrate mastery of the Common Core standards for both Art and English Language Arts.